Pakistan will pay India in its own coin for any misadventure: defence minister

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GEO NEWS

Tuesday Feb 13, 2018

Defence Minister Khurram Dastagir. -File

ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Khurram Dastagir, responding to belligerent statements from his counterpart in India, said on Tuesday that Pakistan will pay India in its own coin in case of any misadventure from the country's eastern neighbour.

India's defence minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, had accused Pakistan of an attack on an army base in Indian-occupied Kashmir which killed 10 people, including five Indian soldiers.

Any Indian aggression, strategic miscalculation, or misadventure regardless of its scale, mode, or location will not go unpunished and shall be met with an equal and proportionate response, said a statement issued by the defence minister.

Referring to India's usual practice of blaming Pakistan after every attack by Kashmiri freedom fighters, Dastagir further said that instead of knee-jerk reactions and blaming Pakistan, India should answer for its state-sponsored espionage against Pakistan.

"India has failed to deliver justice to the 42 Pakistanis murdered in the Samjhota Express terrorism eleven years ago this week," said the defence minister.

Dastagir, criticising India further, said the country is destabilising regional peace through its "irresponsible statements on nuclear deterrence and through its bloody, five-fold escalation in 2017 of attacks on unarmed civilians on the line-of-control and working boundary".

Expressing full confidence in the armed forces of Pakistan, he maintained that Pakistani forces are vigilant and fully capable of defending the country's territorial integrity.

"An aggressive Pak-centric doctrine and arrayed forces under a belligerent regime leading to a possible strategic miscalculation by India will seriously impact the strategic stability in South Asia," added Dastagir.

A firefight erupted Saturday when freedom fighters stormed the base in occupied Jammu.

The attack lasted for two days before Indian forces declared the army base clear and ended its combing operation.